Late fuel stop spoils Ferrari return to IMSA at Long Beach

Scuderia Corsa finished 10th in the competitive GT Daytona class as Ferrari returned to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in Saturday’s SportsCar Grand Prix on the streets of Long Beach, located near the team’s dealerships and fan base.

A stop for fuel in the final two minutes spoiled a strong showing by Daniel Mancinelli and Colin Braun, who co-drove the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 in the 100-minute sprint in the Los Angeles-based team’s first race at Long Beach in four years. Prior to the stop, Braun ran fifth throughout the final hour.

Qualifying fifth on Friday in his WeatherTech Championship debut, Mancinelli was running sixth when he pitted for his pit stop at the 37-minute mark. Braun returned in ninth but needed only three laps to get up to fifth – where he remained until the late stop.

“I’m proud of the team,” Braun said. “Coming in at the middle of the season and fitting in, the Scuderia Corsa guys did a great job today. Daniel qualified well, the guys did a great job on the pit stop, and we had it all lined up, looking for a top five. But we were a little bit short on fuel at the end, so we had to come back in and splash. That was a bit of a bummer, but nonetheless, the guys did a great job.”

Braun had a close call with 11 minutes on the clock. He was running on the inside of a Turn when a DPi made it a three wide move,  sandwiching another GTLM machine. Running three-abreast, the cars made side-by-side contact, but Braun was able to continue.